potence

Borrowed from Middle French potence (“power, a crutch”), from Latin potentia (“power, in Medieval Latin also crutch”), from potens (“powerful”); see potent.

potence (countable and uncountable, plural potences)

1. Power or strength; potency.
2. A stud that acts as a support of a pivot in a watch or clock.

• counterpotence
• idempotence
• nilpotence
• unipotence
• cross potence

• potency
• potent
• potentate
• potential
• potentiality

• “potence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “potence”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• pet cone

Borrowed from Latin potis.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpotɛnt͡sɛ]
• Rhymes: -ɛntsɛ

potence f

1. potency

• “potence”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “potence”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “potence”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Inherited from Old French, borrowed from Latin potentia.

• IPA^(key): /pɔ.tɑ̃s/

• Audio (Paris):

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potence f (plural potences)

1. (construction) post and braces
2. gallows, gibbet (for hanging)
3. stem (component on a bicycle)

Beware that this is a false friend, meaning “gallows” (or similar wooden constructions), not “strength”, from the Middle Latin meaning “crutch” of potentia.

• gibet

• gibier de potence

• “potence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• écopent